Don’t blink! You won’t want to miss a single frame of Cassie Shao’s This is a Story Without a Plan, an oddly comforting yet deeply satisfying whirlwind of color, texture, and movement. Although its loose narrative casts a wide net – inviting multiple interpretations of the two figures we follow – the title itself is tongue-in-cheek: as the film is very much about what (I presume to be) the well known and uncomfortable feeling of spectating disaster while lacking any sense of control. 

During the first sequence, we follow a figure putting hangers on showerheads and numbering them, accompanied by the sound of water falling and soft, breath-like exhalations. What should be nonsensical instead feels strangely logical and soothing. The film seems to instruct us to accept what we’re seeing, a sensation amplified by its hypnotic visual style. Yet, my interpretation of calmness isn’t necessarily what was intended from Shao. What is clear, however, is that the placement and nature of the scene is absolutely intentional. It operates as a kind of lesson on how to spectate and what spectating means – an invitation to sit and watch and to allow meaning to emerge through experience rather than understanding.

“The film is a tale of observers but of an unpredictable nature”

The film is complex: it is not solely about observation, nor about the figures’ relationship to being observed. Lots of action unfolds in the world of This is a Story Without a Plan and Shao ensures to leave ample space for feeling regardless of the tempo of the narrative beats – though they do shape our experience. We watch the figures in a pool, in a movie theater, and, importantly, with an erupting volcano. There are literal ebbs and flows in what’s going on – different weights to things occurring or activities at hand. This dynamic extends to the feelings we move through as well. Calamity and solace, disorientation and precision – all coexist, sometimes in relation to the events onscreen, sometimes independent of them.

When speaking of her inspiration for the film, Shao described the sensation of witnessing an explosion while being powerless to intervene. “Based on that idea, the film is a tale of observers but of an unpredictable nature, reflecting on both the characters’ relationships with the explosion and each other”. In this respect, Shao has achieved exactly what she set out to explore. It is a challenge to capture these kinds of ideas onscreen, yet the filmmaker’s blend of narrative abstraction and haptic animation proves to be the perfect vessel and it’s amazing to see.

Words can hardly capture the sheer visual force of This is a Story Without a Plan. Still, in an effort to dissect rather than simply marvel, what I believe to be truly unique here is the blending of styles. Shao described her process: “The characters are drawn digitally and placed in an environment that is a mixture of 3D rendered objects and painted abstract backgrounds. The explosion is painted on an animation cel. I have been working with combining digital and analogue media in my past films, but this is the first time I have incorporated paintings on cel”.

I was surprised to learn this was her first time incorporating cel painting, given how seamlessly it blends with the other style – it was something I noticed off the rip and admired. It’s one thing to merge digital and analog; it’s another to layer multiple forms of analog – oil paint, watercolor, pen etchings – into a single work. The interaction between these different styles conveys as much emotion as the animation itself and speaking as a painter myself, I found it such an inspiring watch.

We’re so happy to be featuring this brilliant film on Short of the Week and curious of all the different feelings that it may generate with you, our audience. We are also super curious and excited for what else Shao has up her sleeve – her next short, A Becoming, explores “the process of discovery in an ever-changing reality”.